He became the archetypical tough-guy cowboy, but he wasn't a cowboy, far from it. So who taught John Wayne to be John Wayne? It was a guy from eastern Washington who most people have forgotten, if they ever heard of him, a guy who changed how we see the West and changed Hollywood itself. He was Yakima Canutt.
Bottom line: Earp and Wayne never met. Anything Wayne knew about the real Earp came to him secondhand from Ford during their 25-year working relationship. Their encounter is only a charming Hollywood fable. Nonetheless, Earp and Wayne did share several qualities.
The family mare, Jenny, carried young Marion Michael Morrison to school every day in Lancaster, California. By the time Marion Morrison became John Wayne, he was an experienced rider who once said that riding a horse “came as naturally to me as breathing.”
Who was JOHN WAYNE'S lifelong BUDDY AND BEST MAN, Ward Bond? A look into the great character actor and best friend of JOHN WAYNE, WARD BOND. How the friendship they shared was on a special level!
John Wayne and Clint Eastwood never shared the screen in a Western film due to an off-screen feud initiated by Wayne, who did not hold favorable opinions of Eastwood.
Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne starred in three classic film together, and formed a lifelong friendship. The letter is written on Stewart's personal headed stationery. Although undated, it's believed Stewart sent this letter to Wayne on his birthday in May 1979.
John Wayne and Yakima Canutt on the set of Sagebrush Trail (1933). And Duke continued to do so throughout his 50 year career. He performed his own stunts on the bulk of his nearly 200 films, of which he was leading man in more than 140, eventually earning an honorary membership in the Stuntman's Association.
Did John Wayne know he was dying while shooting the Shootist?
It is unknown if John Wayne was aware that he was dying of cancer when he agreed to film The Shootist; whatever the case, the film is a powerful valedictory to a remarkable man and a fabulous career.
In 1941, when the United States entered the war, Wayne was already 34 years old, which was above the age limit for the draft. However, he expressed his desire to serve his country and tried to enlist in the military, but was rejected due to a football injury he had sustained earlier in his life.
I've never met him. Box Office Mojo: John Ford's famous quote about John Wayne, after seeing Duke in Red River, is that he didn't know the "big, dumb sonofabitch" could act.
John Wayne had initially promised the role of Mattie Ross to his daughter Aissa Wayne, but Director Henry Hathaway refused to cast her. Elvis Presley was considered for the role of La Boeuf, the Texas Ranger.
Thanks to the incessant barking of one tiny, but mighty, Dachshund named Blackie, Wayne's family, with the dog in tow, made it out safe and sound. Young John Wayne and his best friend, Duke. Ethan Wayne carries on his father's legacy with his work at John Wayne: An American Experience—and with his love of dogs.
Roberson got the job, due both to his expert horsemanship and his resemblance to John Carroll, whom Roberson doubled in his first picture, Wyoming (1947). His close physical resemblance to John Wayne led to nearly 30 years as Wayne's stunt double.
Wayne never enlisted and even filed for a 3-A draft deferment, which meant that if the sole provider for a family of four were drafted, it would cause his family undue hardship. The closest he ever came to World War II service was portraying the actions of others on the silver screen.
John Wayne wasn't much of a golfer, but he would head over to Lakeside after shooting yet western movie on the Warner Brothers lot to play bridge in the men's grill.
Was good friends with John Wayne from the time they were part of the director John Ford's stock company. Henry's son, Peter Fonda, in his autobiography, said that Henry had some trouble with the Duke and fellow Ford film co-star Ward Bond over politics, as the two were definitely to his father's right.
Besides being good friends Wayne and Mitchum were both known for being able to drink just about anyone else in the film business under the table and still report to work in the morning, lines letter perfect.
Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for forty years. They became friends and then roommates as stage actors in New York, and when they began making films in Hollywood, they roomed together again.
